Special session has full plate

Sunday

Sep 30, 2007 at 12:03 AM

Cutting more than $1 billion from the state's budget may be the easiest job for Florida lawmakers returning to the Capitol Wednesday. While the special session was called to address one of the state's worst budget deficits in decades, other issues are trying to press their way onto the stage.

By BY JOE FOLLICKSun Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE - Cutting more than $1 billion from the state's budget may be the easiest job for Florida lawmakers returning to the Capitol Wednesday.

While the special session was called to address one of the state's worst budget deficits in decades, other issues are trying to press their way onto the stage.

Among the controversial matters that some top lawmakers want to address: The looming expiration of the state's no-fault'' auto insurance requirement and the sudden demise of a January referendum on the state's property tax system.

House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, asked Gov. Charlie Crist on Friday to add the two topics to next week's agenda. Crist's spokeswoman Erin Isaac said the governor is studying Rubio's request. Like Rubio, Crist has favored extending the state's no-fault requirements as well as a revised Jan. 29 vote on property taxes.

But Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, has said that lawmakers should only worry about the budget crunch during the scheduled 10-day session.

Many senators say that fixing a budget shortfall while the state's real estate market continues its plummet is more than enough work.

"This cut is historic,'' said. Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Winter Haven, the chairman of the Senate's general government appropriations committee. "I'm spending the lion's share of my time trying to figure out how to make these cuts. It's going to be very hard for us to handle all three of those discussions simultaneously.''

To an unusual degree, there is little debate about how to cut the budget. With revenue less than expected, there is general agreement on how much spending to trim to keep the constitutionally required balanced budget. The largest debate may be whether to raise university and community college tuition. Schools and lawmakers want to raise it by 5 percent; Crist vetoed such a hike earlier this year.

But lawmakers' to-do list could get longer if Crist asks lawmakers to consider the two controversial issues.

A Leon County judge said last week that the wording lawmakers created for a January ballot referendum was unconstitutionally vague, largely because it failed to say that a "yes'' vote would phase out the Save Our Homes cap on annual assessment increases.

Rubio is insisting that lawmakers fix the wording and put it back on the ballot. But a number of Republican senators, as well as some in the House, who voted for the controversial plan in June say they wouldn't vote for it again.

Democrats, outnumbered nearly two-to-one in the Legislature, have virtual veto power since it takes a three-fourths vote to put a constitutional amendment on a special election ballot.

House Democratic leader Dan Gelber, Miami Beach, said that if lawmakers take the issue up again, any change would have to protect Save Our Homes, allow current residents to keep some accrued tax savings if they move and also protect state funding for schools. The plan booted off of January's ballot did none of those three things.

"We have done absolutely nothing to inspire confidence in the public on property taxes,'' Gelber said of the GOP-led Legislature. "I think the citizens of the state are angry. They have a right to be.''

PIP covers up to $10,000 of medical costs in case of an accident, regardless of who caused the injuries. Auto insurers say the system encourages fraud; supporters say it insures quick payments and reduces litigation.

Months of negotiations had resulted in a loose agreement last week that would have kept PIP and tightened expenditures to reduce fraud.

But Pruitt again said the budget should be lawmakers' focus next week, leading to a bitter message from the House Majority Whip Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, to fellow Republicans.

"Maintaining a no-fault system is imperative to reduce the number of lawsuits that will occur due to accidents,'' she wrote. "However, strong forces are working against PIP, and as it stands today, PIP will sunset, and due to Senate's hardline position, there is little hope for re-enactment.''

Gelber noted that talks on property tax and PIP reform have largely been done secretly and in private among a few Republican lawmakers. He said the failure to act on the two topics this month is probably a good thing for Floridians.

"Every time my colleagues rush something, it's usually done (behind) closed doors and it usually ends up with horrible mistakes,'' he said.

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